Gelimer

Gelimer (480-553) was King of the Vandals from 530 to 534, succeeding Hilderic. He was defeated by the Byzantine general Belisarius in 534, and the Vandalic Kingdom was conquered by the Romans during his reign.

Biography
Gelimer was born in 480, the cousin of the Vandal king Hilderic. In June 530, supported by the Arian Vandal nobility, he overthrew his Catholic cousin, who was a Byzantine ally. After Gelimer refused to restore Hilderic to the throne or send him to the court of Byzantine emperor Justinian I in Constantinople, Justinian decided to dispatch his general Belisarius to reconquer North Africa for the Romans. The Vandals were distracted by a war with the rebellious Sardinians to the north, with Gelimer's brother Tzazo leading the bulk of the Vandal army north in an attempt to subdue the Sardinians; this left North Africa nearly undefended as Belisarius and his expedition conquered the Vandalic Kingdom. The Vandals were defeated at Ad Decimum in 533 and Tricamarum in 534, and Gelimer was forced to surrender in 534; he was granted vast estates in Galatia, where he died an old man in 553.